Parallelization of a finite element CFD code using PSPARSLIB: Application to three-dimensional free surface flows

This paper discusses finite element solution methods for simulating unsteady three-dimensional free surface flows. Parallelization of the code is carried out using PSPARSLIB and the MPI message passing libraries. This code is used to simulate three-dimensional incompressible flows in dynamic meshes. The governing equilibrium equations are written in the framework of the Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian kinematic description to which the variational formulation is applied. The fluid flow and the dynamics of the mesh are solved in a coupled fashion using Newton's method. The resulting set of nonlinear equations is solved by a robust preconditioned GMRES algorithm. Parallel implementation issues such as data structures for the finite element method using domain decomposition and their impact on iterative solvers will be discussed. Finally, the computational performance is assessed on a practical three-dimensional hydraulic problem.